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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (198369)	8/21/2006 12:56:47 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 281500

A mirror finish on a missile or warhead is indeed a defense against lasers, but it isn't a perfect defense. Any defect in the mirror will tend to absorb energy and the absorbed energy will increase the defect. Also mirrors aren't perfect. Even one free of obvious defects absorbs some energy. The mirrors in the lasers are very good mirrors for the specific wavelength the laser users. A mirror on a missile might have to cope with multiple wavelengths, it would also have to be light and durable, and survive the launch, and moving through the air at high speed, without accumulating defects. That isn't enough to make a mirror "no defense", because even reflecting part (and maybe a large part) of the energy from the laser, will make the missile or warhead harder to destroy, but you analysis was simplistic.